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Fishing Report Update April 8th

Good early spring fishing continues for anglers hunting the waters of Long Beach Island. Striped bass, perch, tog, winter flounder, black drum and kingfish are all on tap. Here’s an update on the fishing front here on Long Beach Island.

Local Striped Bass Fishing

The Causeway Bridges are getting better and better as well as other mid-island areas. Catch reports from the north and south end’s bayside areas are also becoming more frequent from anglers fishing live bloodworms and artificial lures. The Barnegat Bay’s westside sod banks, points and tributaries are fishy right now and soon the flats will turn on. The Great Bay and Mullica River continue to produce.

Some surprisingly good healthy bass cruising the bay.

Craig Harkness reported, “Perfect day today. Started off fishing the bridges with artificials (softbats) in the morning. Got two bass and then hit Fish Heads for live bloodworms. Then set up on the sod banks fishing 3/0 circle hook hi/lo rigs. Got three striped bass.”

The LBI Surf

The Long Beach Island beaches usually starts up with slow fishing in April and then rev up in May. If blues show this year, they would be a front running catalyst.

The Spring Surf Fishing Derby kicks off!!! Click here for more info.

Tautog Fishing Report

April is the one month spring tog season. Each year it offers some of the best fishing of the year. The best part is it’s good for for both land based and boat anglers.

Jeff Crabtree is one angler who puts a ton of time in and it shows with his consistent catches season in and season out. Yesterday he struck again! Jeff caught and weighed in a solid 8-LB tog. This was one epic fish for land based togging.

Boats fishing the wrecks put together good catches this week. One recent report came in from Capt. Jeff Warford. He has been out a couple time in recent days taking advantage of the great weather. He shared, “I’m loving the new Rhodan GPS Anchor. It’s a Game Changer! I’m loving the Rhodan Life.” Jeff and crew were recently locked in over some good structure and they pulled a nice catch together. Here’s Captain Jeff with one of the biggest of the day.

Kingfish… What the heck!

It is not a common catch for early April but it proves there are a few here this early in the year. Yup a northern kingfish! Paul Lindsey caught this king today on his new rod and reel. He stopped in and set up a new ODM DNA surf rod matched up with a Penn Battle DX. Couldn’t dream of a more perfect weapon for the local area fishing. It’s a great pair with a balance of performance and quality at the reasonable price.

Raritan Bay Bass Fishing

Raritan Bay has been good and it’s just the start of a great spring run. Lots of anglers with nice fish coming on top water spooks and metal lips.  Some big fish are in the mix too. Lots of great fishing still to come!

Here’s Fish Heads Alumni Dan D. with a serious one that committed to a top water spook. Dan was fishing a Doc Spook aboard Shore Catch.

Winter Flounder Fishing

Dave Moores made his first winter flounder fishing trip a few days ago. He managed two flounder. The next couple weeks are the time

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Author: FishHead.Greg

A Long Beach Island native with life long experience fishing and navigating the local waters, Greg is a distinguished Master Captain (the highest qualified operator license), holding a US Coast Guard Masters 50T Near Coastal License with Towing Endorsement. Raised in and now managing his family's bait and tackle business, Fishermans Headquarters (Since 1962, The Saltwater Fishing Bait & Tackle Experts) Greg is daily immersed in fishing. He is the Chief Contributor of FishingLBI.com (Long Beach Island's best fishing report blog) as well as the Admin for the shop's social media pages (on Instagram and Facebook). Be sure to follow!

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